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Sunday, August 9, 2009

A Little Walk Down Memory Lane

I was poking through old scrapbooks and came across one filled with old pictures of the first dolls I ever made to sell! I began my dollmaking career in the early 70's to supplement our income for Christmastime and my love of dollmaking led to making soft-sculpture dolls and I treked to the craft shows in the surrounding states during festival times. Some patterns I bought through Vogue and Judi, and Carolee Dolls and adapted them and I exchanged patterns with dollmakers throughout the world and then just begin experimenting with different body pieces to create "Molly's Dollys". I stopped making dolls in the 80's but have always been a collector and now have a new interest in the art dolls of today. I thought you might like seeing some of my very earliest dolls.

This image was of me and my youngest son Jake (age 39)at a craft show when he was 12 years old! I always managed to recruit one kid or the other to help me in the booths. It was fun times for me and I hope not too bad for them. Many times my Mom went with me and she would sell all her little crochet treasures. That is a special memory for me as I lost her in 1988 and miss her so much still. I think often of the fun we as "old gals" could be having now!

These little Trolls were made from pink velour and look at the fur hairdos!

36" Shirley Temple with yarn ringlet curls.

I believe this doll was adapted from an old Carolee Dolls pattern. They were good sellers because the soft sculpture toes, fingers and facial features was a new thing then and people loved the realism.They were also fast to make as they could wear a size 9 month baby outfit so you didn't have to make the clothing!

Brother and Sister dolls made from a Vogue Pattern with velour bodies and yarn hair. Clothing and leather shoes were custom made.

A fun little trio of dolls using muslin stuffed very tight and then painted with flesh colored gesso. Hair was yarn and clothing custom made. I believe they stood about 24 inches tall and would stand on their own. Arms and legs were attached by buttons.

These two dolls were made from an adaptation of one pattern, the one on the right was a "Nancy" look alike of the Sluggo and Nancy comics and had a muslin body. The one on the left was made of velour with yarn ringlets. All my dolls had handpainted eyes and most had sculpted mouths and noses.

This big boy was an adaptation of the Shirley Temple doll and had fur hair and custom clothing with white hightop baby shoes.

And what's not to love about Betty Boop. This type doll never sold well for me as I think people were more taken with the baby type dolls and the slender body type did not appeal much to children as they wanted babies they could dress and undress and were cuddly and the adult collectors were looking more for porcelain dolls.

And that concludes my little blast from the Molly's Dollys past. Hope you enjoyed it.

3 comments:

Hi,just came across your blog and enjoyed looking at your things. I'll be back often to look at what else you have came up with. Enjoyed the old cd projects, great idea for making a journal with them. Have a great week.

Hi Mollye!What sweet dolls! I can sew a straight line and that is about it! Your dolls are lovely! I am so glad you have been stopping by my blog, it is always good to hear from you! Hope you are having a great week!hugs, Dee